


Hetalia/Beauty and the Beast AU - Monster Like Me (Rusame)

by katsudonnnnnnnnnn



Category: Beauty and the Beast (1991), Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anthropomorphic, M/M, Non-specific time period, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Transformation, Witch Curses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 03:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10845753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katsudonnnnnnnnnn/pseuds/katsudonnnnnnnnnn
Summary: NOTE:  Hetalia is owned by Hidekaz Himaruya. Beauty and the Beast is owned by Disney. I’m not trying to infringe on either. This is basically a Hetalia fanfic that was heavily inspired by Beauty and the Beast.I've already posted this on my Tumblr, I just decided to also post it here so it'll all be together, and also to post the "extended" ending. (AKA the finished ending, because Tumblr's character limit cut off like the last 3 sentences of the original there.)Russia was cursed by a witch since he was a baby to be a hideous beast until he's had great love shown to him, and his family locked him away in their old house with some servants. America and Canada find the house while they're out hunting, and decide to explore it.





	1. Part 1

The night was cold and quiet, save for the anguished screams of the couple and frantic cries in Ukrainian from the young girl with them for her baby brother.  
A round-faced, pregnant woman with long, platinum blonde hair struggled to wrestle a crying baby boy away from the old witch standing in the front door.  
Behind their epic battle, a man with piercing violet eyes and darker hair stood, holding the young blonde girl back to keep her safe. He desperately wanted to help his wife save their son, but he felt a responsibility to keep the witch from harming their eldest daughter too. He felt every bit as helpless as the girl at his side.  
After an intense struggle, the blonde woman finally took the baby from the witch’s bony hands, running across the room with him.  
“This is not the end,” the witch snarled. She muttered an incantation before disappearing in a puff of green smoke.  
The baby boy opened up his sharp, violet eyes, and seeing that his mother was holding him again, smiled, revealing a mouth full of new, razor sharp teeth.  
His parents, along with the girl at the father’s side, gasped.  
The girl, looking at her baby brother’s new alarming appearance- an excessive amount of hair on his arms, massive teeth and claws, and glassy eyes- murmured only one word in shock: “mutant”.  
—******—  
The sunlight filtered through the dirty window. In the bed directly below the fancy French window with tattered royal blue curtains, an almost humanoid creature slumbered. When he snored his shark-like, pointed teeth were visible, and his twisting, shiny horns stuck out from under a matted mess of long, blonde hair. He held his pillow close to his pointed, elfin ears with furry hands, almost resembling a bear’s paws, at the end of which were long claws.  
There was nothing else too notable about his large, muscular but also fairly chubby body, save for the fact that his feet, like his hands, were covered in downy, platinum-blonde fur and had sharp claws.  
The door squeaked open, and inside peered a nervous, thin boy with wavy hair and an expression like that of a dog visiting the vet’s office.  
“Um… I- I- Ivan?” he asked.  
The man in bed sat up, digging his claws into the mattress. His pale, violet eyes conveyed both fury and sickliness.  
“Sorry! Sorry! Master Ivan!” he corrected himself, knees shaking. “T- Toris and the others have p- prepared your b-b-breakfast!”  
“I would advise you leave me alone, Raivis,” Ivan grumbled.  
The servant boy all but ran down the hall screaming. Why did Feliks have to put him on wake-up duty??? Oh, right. Feliks’s sassiness to Ivan in the morning has nearly gotten him clawed multiple times. The paycheck his distant family paid the four of them to live in that run-down old mansion and keep Ivan from escaping and tormenting the denizens of the village a few miles away wasn’t enough to make up for that harrowing experience. Stupid maid. Just because Ivan needed to hear that didn’t mean it would be in Feliks’s favor to say it!  
Ivan rolled out of bed, groaning and growling like a bear who had just come out of hibernation. He quickly threw on some green pants- ripped at the bottom, as all of his pants were- and a white button-down shirt, which he buttoned up to the middle of his chest- coincidentally, where his human flesh and blonde fur happened to intersect in a V-shape.  
He happened to get a glimpse of himself in the ancient, cracked and scratched vanity mirror. He sighed, remembering the antidote to the curse that the witch had placed upon him when he was young.  
“Until you have great love shown to you, you are doomed to remain a horrifying beast forever.” There was no way he would get love in this state. Ivan was a freak. Even his own family abandoned him, and his servants couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him. How could anybody even kiss him with those giant teeth of his, and how could he hold someone with his massive claws??  
“I hate myself,” he seethed, clawing at his reflection, causing the glass to emit a sharp, shrieking noise. He stomped down the staircase, into the vast dining hall. There was enough room to hold a party there, but there was no longer any reason to celebrate. Even though the servants- Raivis, Toris, Feliks and Eduard- kept the house pretty clean, no amount of scrubbing would wash the desolate, dingy appearance off of the walls.  
Ivan plopped himself down into the chair at the end of the long table, across from where the servants nervously ate, all huddled together. He stared down at his saucer of borscht, lifted the bowl to his mouth and slurped up the contents loudly and quickly.  
Feliks cringed. “Like, do think one of us should teach him-” he began.  
“Ssshhh!” the others hissed, wide-eyed.  
“He might hear you!” Eduard whispered.  
Ivan got up from the table, not even bothering to wipe the red splotches off of the collar of his shirt.  
“It was cold,” he said angrily as he walked past the servants, who made a point of staying out of the way. “I want to see you prepare a better meal next time!”  
“Y- y- y- yes, sir!” Toris stammered.  
Ivan’s loud footsteps retreated, and the boom of his bedroom doors signified he was out of the room, to which the servants all breathed a sigh of relief.  
“I can’t live like this!” Eduard cried. “Every time he’s here I just want to run!”  
“Like, I wish I could spit in his food!” Feliks said, shaking his head and smoothing his black skirt out. “Put baby oil, like, on the floor. Totally just not clean anything. I know he’d, like, totally kill me, but you’ve, like, thought about it too, right?”  
The other servants nervously agreed. They all shared a distressed sigh.  
“Let’s go back to work,” Toris said, picking up the empty plates and bowls off of the table.


	2. Part 2

“Come on, Matthew,” Alfred whined. “Let’s go do SOMETHING. I’m going to go crazy if all we’re going to do is sit around and read books!” Alfred liked reading books as much as the next guy, but he had a much different heart than that of his twin brother. He craved adventure, and going out to meet new people and try new things. Matthew, however, didn’t. He liked staying in familiar surroundings, keeping to himself, and not taking risks.  
“Why do we always have to be on the move?” Matthew asked. “There’s plenty to do right here at home.”  
Alfred groaned, staring up at the ceiling. “Don’t you ever want to get out of this town? Go travel? See new things you usually only see in paintings?? Maybe meet some pretty girls?” he said. “Cause the girls won’t come to you.”  
Matthew stared up from his book blankly. “I have no interest in girls,” he said. Before Alfred could make an immature joke, he quickly added, “Or boys.”  
“More of both for me!” Alfred laughed. Despite the fact that most of their village was very strict and saw Alfred’s bisexuality as a major sin- that is, if he told anyone other than Matthew, they would- Alfred always made light of the situation. It was a little annoying never getting to kiss any boys, because he actually preferred boys to girls a tiny bit, but he trusted the time would come.   
“Okay, okay, forget the girls and/or boys,” Alfred said dismissively. “Why don’t we just go for a horseback ride in the mountains? That’s not too far- plus, we need to gather some wild onions. Maybe if we’re lucky, catch some fish or shoot a deer!”   
“Why don’t we go to the market and buy food instead?” Matthew asked.  
“Psshh,” Alfred sputtered, rolling his eyes. “It’s not the same as getting to hunt your own food! That’s how our ancestors did it, you know. We’re lucky. We have fishing poles, bows and arrows, and muskets too! They didn’t! … Also, I spent the last of our money on a musket, ammunition and a new tailored suit.” Alfred admired his new weapon across the room, shiny and waiting to be used for hunting.  
Matthew dropped his book, going pale in shock. “You… What??!?”   
“We can both use the musket!” Alfred said. “Although we can’t both wear the suit, because you’re short and you have those little skinny chicken legs, but we can both use the musket!”  
“How could you??” Matthew asked, fear filling his eyes. They only both got paid a handful of gold coins a month, and Alfred had just blown both of their pay on an impulse buy! Matthew looked over at the bear pelt on the floor, the fancy mirror on the wall, and the woven blanket on the chair. Correction- yet ANOTHER impulse buy. “We were supposed to use that to buy food and kerosene for our lamps! How are we going to make it now??”  
“You always say that!” Alfred said, laughing off his brother’s concern. “And we always make it by just fine. Tell you what- let’s go into the mountains and I’ll shoot a nice deer for us to have for dinner.”   
“Okay, fine,” he sighed.   
—******—   
“We’ve been out here for hours!” Matthew cried, adjusting his weight on his horse. The saddle was really starting to hurt his butt now. “There’s nothing here!”   
“There’s always stuff in these woods. Next thing you know we’ll see a stream full of fish, or a deer, or a wild turkey, or- hey!” Alfred said, staring at something dark in the distance, between the trees.   
“Hay? Why do we need hay?” Matthew asked.   
Alfred and his horse had already sped off into the distance.   
“Wait!” Matthew cried, and tugged at his horse’s reins, in pursuit of his brother. By the time he finally caught up to him, he was outside of a massive old house, with a wrought iron fence and dying garden. The whole house was in great need of repairs, with chipped paint on the bricks, a few cracks in the walls, broken, smudged windows, missing shingles and peeling paint on wooden shutters that somehow still barely clung to the windows. “Let’s go check it out!” Alfred exclaimed, jumping off his horse and running to the front door.   
“Alfred, what are you doing?!?” Matthew asked. “We can’t just run around other people’s houses!”   
He stopped and turned around. “Nobody lives here. You know me, abandoned buildings fascinate me!” he said, turning back around and opening the door. It squeaked when it opened.   
“Matthew, come on! Live a little! Let’s look around! There’s literally adventure right under your nose and you just want to ignore it?”   
Matthew looked around, and finally followed him into the building.   
It sure didn’t look like anyone lived there. Not a single candle was on, nor a curtain open to let in the golden evening sunlight. The wallpaper was stained and dingy, and the furniture had massive scratches on it. It was fairly clean but it really didn’t look like the house had been very well taken care of- at least, that was the case for the foyer, dining hall, living room and the hall at the top of the staircase. Matthew followed along behind Alfred closely, worrying about everything that could- and probably would- go wrong. Alfred, however, was excited. This was fun! He couldn’t wait to see what was in the first door at the end of the hall! He opened the door- and both him and Matthew were shocked.   
It looked like a war had happened in the bedroom. Pictures were knocked around, and the floor was covered with claw marks, shards of glass, ripped fabric pieces and pieces from furniture. The bed in the middle of the room was perfectly made, save for the rips and tears in the sheets. Above the bed, a portrait of a couple with 2 children- a young girl and a baby boy- hung in a gold frame. The glass in the frame was shattered, and the gold of the frame was tarnished and dusty.   
“Whoa,” Alfred gasped, looking around the room. “It looks like someone attacked everything in here.”   
Matthew trembled a bit, especially having noticed that a set of claw marks in the wallpaper looked pretty new.   
“This is so cool!! Let’s look in the next room!” Alfred said loudly and excitedly, grabbing his brother’s gloved hand and running to the next room. He opened the door, and saw a similar scene to the room before, save for all the broken glass. The carpet on the floor was more ripped up, and the few objects inside looked as though they had been precariously thrown about. This room was not anywhere near as clean as the others, as this room smelled of rancid meat, dog hair and decaying vegetation. The sheets on the bed were a lot more rumpled and ripped up than the previous room.   
“Let’s get out of here,” Matthew said, covering his nose.   
“Let’s not!” Alfred exclaimed. “Hey, look at this!” A small white box on the vanity had caught his attention. He opened it up and found a leather bound journal, pages yellowed with age.   
“Whoa, this person has really bad handwriting,” Alfred noted, staring at the jagged, awkwardly shaped letters on the page.   
“Now you’re just snooping!” Matthew hissed. “I’ve got a really, really bad feeling about all of this.”   
“Hey, listen: July 2nd: I had Sunday school today. I hate going there- not just because the kids always tease me. If God really is real why did he make me a monster? I come home and everyone’s gone! My parents and my sisters weren’t anywhere to be found! I just hope they’re out trying to find a cure for-”   
That was as far as he got before a half screaming, half growling sound behind Matthew cut him off.   
Behind Matthew stood a menacing creature, with matted, frizzy hair and an almost human structure to its face, save for the sharp teeth, pointed ears and crazed, dull violet eyes. What parts of this….creature weren’t covered with fur the same color as its hair (or mane? Neither of the brothers could tell whether or not it was human, as the creature had both human and non-human characteristics) were pale, smooth flesh, having barely seen the light of day.   
This creature was clearly mad, standing with its back arched and hands/paws almost in fists.   
Nobody made a move for a second. Both human brothers were too surprised to do anything, and this creature was paralyzed with rage.   
Alfred let the journal fall to the floor. “What are you doing here???” the creature roared in a raspy Russian accent.   
“I told you we should have left!” Matthew cried, running down the hall. Alfred was close behind him.   
This creature ran behind both of them, at almost the exact same pace as they did. Just before they made it to the staircase, Alfred stumbled, unbeknownst to Matthew. He kept running, out of the house and onto his horse, and rode full speed back to the village, unaware that the creature caught his brother. Unaware, that is, until he had been home a few minutes and noticed how silent it was. He knew he needed to go back and save him, but he also wasn’t going back alone. Not with that beast around. He needed a search party.   
—******—   
“Hey! Ow! Let go of me!” Alfred yelled, kicking and squirming to get away. But it was hopeless- the beast had a death grip on Alfred’s torso as lifted him off the floor. “Why were you in my house?!” the creature roared.   
Alfred winced. “You really need to consider brushing your teeth! It smells like something died in your mouth!”   
“I knew it!” With a snarl, the creature pushed Alfred into the wall. “You were just here to hunt me down, like…like…some kind of animal!”   
“Yeah, about that…!” Alfred said, slapping uselessly at the creature’s huge hands, which closely resembled a human’s hand, save for all the hair and claws.   
“I thought I made it perfectly clear to your people: stop sending humans over here! I don’t want to talk to any of you filthy savages!” it spat. “You’ll pay the price for your whole kind!”   
Alfred gulped, staring at his own stomach, and the creature’s huge claws. “You’re- you’re not going to kill me, are you?”  
The creature laughed, a sort of fearsome roar. “I could, but what good would that do? Nobody would learn the true lesson here! You are now my prisoner and slave. If I ask you to do anything, you do it without question. And I think you know what’ll happen if you try to leave.”   
The creature dropped Alfred to the floor. Alfred now understood why Matthew never wanted to go anywhere or take risks.


	3. Part 3

Matthew knocked on the 8th door that day. He had been out all day looking for people to help him rescue his brother from that…thing that attacked both of them earlier, and so far the only person who was willing to help was this narcissistic tavern owner who just thought that going on a quest would make him more popular with the women in the village.   
A woman with short blonde hair, tired eyes and a notably large chest answered the door. She had clearly been about to go to bed, because she was wearing a white nightgown and was holding a candle.  
“Sorry to b-bother you, ma'am…but I- I just wanted to know if you could join my search party?” Matthew asked. “Or that you know anyone who can? My brother went in- into this house in the mountains… And this…this… A monster attacked him and- and I don’t know if he’s okay…”  
“Are you married?” interrupted the tavern owner, a bright-eyed albino with a German accent and a tendency to not focus on the subject unless it related to him or pretty girls.   
“Gilbert…!” Matthew said, half chastising him, half worried he was going to make everyone in the village lose support for their cause.  
The lady in the door looked shocked. “You don’t mean… THAT house, do you?” she asked.  
“It- it was kind of falling apart and it was mostly kind of dark in color, with a big wrought iron fence…” Matthew said. “The inside looked dirty and sad.”  
The woman almost dropped her candle. “Oh God,” she quietly whispered. “No, no, no, no…” She ran back into the house, leaving the door open. She came back, a sleepy, younger female behind her. The woman with her had long, blonde hair and a slender figure.  
“Natalia, listen,” the older woman urgently cried. “They said that you-know-who captured someone!”  
“You know who…?” the younger woman asked, rubbing her eyes. “Do you mean our brother that I never got to meet because of-”  
The rest of her sentence was cut off by the other woman covering her mouth with her hand, clearly embarrassed.  
“There’s a reason I said ‘you-know-who’ instead of his name…” she murmured, turning back to the visitors on the doorstep. “We’ll help any way we can! Go quickly, find more people! We’ll both get dressed and join you shortly!”   
Matthew and Gilbert both walked away, the former happy because he found more people who would help; the latter disappointed because he didn’t get to find out if the woman at the door was married.  
In the house they had just left, a chaotic scene began to unfold. Now that Natalia, the younger woman was awake, she frantically apologized to her sister for having mentioned their brother.   
“I’m sorry, Katyusha! Katyusha, listen! I forgot for a moment we disowned him!” she cried.  
The other woman was only half paying attention. She threw a dress at her younger sister.  
“Put this on,” she said, getting a dress out of the trunk for herself. “Who knows what Ivan could be doing this very moment??”  
—*****—  
The dining area was empty, save for Ivan, Alfred and a wary Raivis, who stood against the wall, holding an empty silver tray, waiting to be called into the kitchen.  
Ivan sat at the end of the table, in the ornate chair that he always sat in, and Alfred in the chair ahead and to his right. He had insisted he sit closer to Ivan so he could better determine what kind of motives exactly Ivan had, and whether or not he had changed his mind about Alfred.   
Presently, he cautiously watched Ivan as he fiddled with the ends of his scarf, somehow not getting his claws caught in it.  
“Tell me,” Alfred finally began. Ivan looked up with a startled grunt. “What… What kind of… Are you a… What species are you? You kind of look like a werewolf but you look like that even when it’s not a full moon, plus you have horns and no tail.”   
Ivan was caught off guard by that question. He barely knew the answer himself! Nobody had been around to tell him, save for all the servants that came into and exited his life. And they all acted exactly the same- terrified of him and associating with him only at a bare minimum.   
He rested his head in his paws. “I actually don’t know,” he murmured.   
“Oh,” Alfred finally commented after a pause. “Have you tried studying it? Looking at identification guides?” He was intrigued by the fact that Ivan didn’t know what he was. No matter how hard Alfred tried he couldn’t fathom the concept of not knowing that he was human.   
“Yes,” Ivan said, groaning a little. “Whenever I think I have it I realize one of my characteristics doesn’t fit!”   
“I’ll make up a species for you then!”  
Ivan turned to curiously eye the human.   
“What you are hasn’t been discovered yet,” Alfred explained, picking up a cloth napkin and and taking a fountain pen he found off of the table. “I discovered it, so I can name you! … Hmm… How about… You kind of look like a…” Alfred’s mind was blank. If only Matthew were here. He could have come up with a good name for sure.   
“I’ll think about it later,” he finally said. “It looks like our food’s here!”  
Raivis exited the kitchen, carrying the first course of their meal- some kind of soup with herbs in it. He set both bowls on the table and ran back into the kitchen, astonished at what he discovered.  
“He was acting like a normal person! Having a conversation and everything!!” Raivis blurted out.  
“That can’t be,” Eduard said, leaning against the wall. “Not if he wasn’t yelling.”  
“But- but he wasn’t yelling!” Raivis realized how unbelievable it sounded. “I think having Alfred here is starting to change him somehow.”   
Back in the dining area, Alfred slowly sipped his soup from his spoon, watching the unconventional way Ivan ate. He lifted the entire bowl up to his face and lapped up the soup, loudly and not at all neatly.   
For a second Ivan’s gaze fell upon Alfred, and the half-disgusted, half-confused look he was giving him.   
He awkwardly set the bowl down, somewhat embarrassed. It was weird to him- he always ate like that, and didn’t feel a need to change anything- until now. He stared forlornly at the rest of the soup, trying to figure out how to eat it more neatly.   
Alfred picked up on the awkwardness radiating out from Ivan, and looked at him again with pity. “You don’t know how to use a spoon?”   
Ivan sank down into his chair.  
Alfred laughed and put his whole face into the soup bowl, trying to eat messier than Ivan had. Soup dripping from his glasses, he looked up, snickering, and declared, “I can eat messier than you can!”   
From there it became a contest of who had the worse table manners, culminating in Ivan finishing his soup by licking it off of his hands and Alfred doing the same by pouring the contents of the bowl into his mouth.  
At about the same time, Raivis returned with the next course, a roast turkey that he placed between them. He was even more shocked to see Alfred covered in soup as well as Ivan. He determined it wasn’t so much Alfred being a good influence as it was Ivan being a bad influence.   
Alfred waited to see how Ivan would go about eating the turkey, in the hopes he could one-up him, but instead both of them sat there, not eating.   
Ivan just felt like he couldn’t ask Alfred what he wanted to. He wanted to ask Alfred to show him how to eat in a neat, dignified manner, the way he had at the beginning of dinner, but instead remained silent.   
Alfred didn’t like waiting, and so went about eating some of the turkey- normally, with a knife and fork.   
Ivan intently watched him, then took a drumstick off the turkey.   
He grasped the silverware, staring down the turkey leg on his plate.   
“That’s not how you eat those,” Alfred said, interrupting his thoughts. “You just use your hands with those. That should come pretty naturally to you.”   
With a slightly disappointed expression, Ivan put the drumstick back.   
Alfred then picked up on what Ivan was trying to accomplish.   
He carved off the rest of the white meat from the turkey and put it on Ivan’s plate. “Here, all you have to do is…” He held Ivan’s hands and showed him how to cut up the turkey meat, and even adjusted the way he was supposed to be holding the silverware- allowing for claws, of course.   
Eduard, who happened to be on his way to the restroom, witnessed this spectacle. He burst back into the kitchen.   
“Come look at this! Raivis was right!” he called out.   
All the servants ran into the dining area. The sight of Ivan using silverware and chewing quietly was almost enough to make Toris dizzy with surprise.   
Raivis changed his mind- Alfred really was being a good influence!


	4. Part 4

Alfred couldn’t have felt more conflicted presently. It had been about 6 weeks since that fateful first visit to Ivan’s house, and he had been successful in teaching Ivan basic table manners, even though he wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’t asked. Part of him wanted to go back home- seeing as they were friends now, he would probably let him leave. But at the same time, he had grown to at least tolerate Ivan’s company. Ivan’s feelings towards Alfred were even more confusing. Before Alfred, nobody had ever really made Ivan happy. He couldn’t remember if he had laughed before he met Alfred. He had a way of taking Ivan’s mind off of how much he hated himself. He felt a responsibility to tell Alfred he was free to leave, but he didn’t want him to leave. If Alfred left that would mean only the servants were still there, and he couldn’t call any of his servants his friend the way he could with Alfred. Just before he was about to make the announcement to Alfred, he had an idea that could possibly work. He turned around and ran to the servants’ quarters as fast as he could, throwing the door open.   
Raivis, Eduard and Toris all jumped and gasped upon seeing him burst into the room. Feliks, however, just crossed his arms. “What do you want?” he snapped.   
“A party, that’s what!” Ivan announced. “And you, Feliks, can party better than anyone.” Feliks looked at the other servants. How would they tell him this without offending him??   
“Well, you see, um…” Eduard stammered. “It isn’t- it’s not quite… It isn’t feasible, sir.” “Why not?!” Ivan boomed. “Why can’t we have a party! Give me one good reason why not!”   
“Don’t get mad, p- p- please…” Toris said.   
“Like, it’s because, you know… Nobody would, like, come,” Feliks finally said. “If we have a party people will come,” he calmly responded, determination in his eyes. “They will come.”   
The servants all shrugged. Maybe a small feast and dance wouldn’t hurt…   
Maybe, with any luck, Feliks could get Ivan to dress up and look nice for this. He wondered what he would look like with neatly groomed hair and fancier clothes. And something told him Alfred would be curious too.   
—*****—   
“Is this one fine?” Alfred asked. Because Toris didn’t have anything to do until it was time to start cooking, and it wasn’t fair for Ivan to have a fashion consultant but not Alfred, he was helping Alfred pick out a suit. He sighed. The last two navy blue suits looked exactly the same, save for the different patterns on the vest. Feliks would have been much better at this. Too bad he couldn’t be in two places at the same time. “The first one,” Toris said flatly. “They all looked good though.”   
Alfred stared at him. “You really don’t want to be here, do you?” he chuckled. “I wouldn’t either. It’s fine. It’s not like this is going to be the dance of my life or anything. It’s just a tiny little mini party with you guys and Ivan. It isn’t like I’m dancing with the person I want to marry or anything!”   
Relieved that Alfred wouldn’t try to do to him what Feliks did on a daily basis- try to make him care about what other people were wearing- Toris left for the kitchen. Those strawberry shortcakes weren’t going to make themselves.   
—*****—   
“Stop that!” Ivan growled, swiping a paw up at the hairbrush.   
“I can’t, like, fix your hair if you keep moving!!” Feliks cried out, frustrated. Getting Ivan to appear presentable was taking much, much longer and proving to be harder than anticipated. The first thing Feliks had to do was get Ivan ready for a much needed bath- Ivan didn’t really mind this part because he could do it himself, once Feliks had explained it to him. Now Ivan sat in a chair in Feliks’s room, wearing a towel and an open bathrobe, smelling considerably better even though his hair was still all matted and frizzed- what Feliks was trying to fix at this very moment.   
“I’m moving because you’re pulling my hair!” Ivan growled.   
“But, like, your hair is crazy! It totally looks like some animal, like, built its nest on your head,” Feliks said. “I’m totally trying to be gentle, you, like, know that, right?”   
“Why are we even doing this anyway?? What if I don’t want to be fancy?” Ivan asked. Eduard and Toris had just said it would be just them. Why did Ivan need to dress up if the servants didn’t think anyone else would come?   
Feliks scoffed. “Why?!” he squeaked. “Why?!?? Because you can’t just, like, go to a party all gross and junk! Especially your own party! Besides, do you, like, want Alfred to think you’re some kind of animal??”   
“I am an animal!” Ivan boomed. “See the claws? The matted hair? Pointed yellow teeth? The horns? The fur?? Does this mean nothing to you, Feliks? It’s who I am, and you’re never going to change that.”   
Feliks knew Ivan never had confidence in himself. That’s why Feliks was doing this- because Alfred was unintentionally bringing out his human side but Ivan never even acknowledged. Through the encouragement of this party, he hoped maybe he would realize what Alfred had done for him. He was also doing it as a sort of personal challenge; if he could complete this tranformation extraordinaire- from savage beast to stunning- that meant Feliks could do pretty much anything. As another added bonus, it was entirely possible that Alfred being in his life might open the door for him to meet new people, and possibly even meet someone who would fall in love with him and break the curse.   
“Don’t, like, doubt me!” Feliks protested, grabbing a handful of Ivan’s hair and a pair of scissors. “By the time I’m done with you, you’re, like, going to look totally amazing.”   
—-*****—-   
It was almost sundown, and Alfred nervously paced around the open ballroom. It was a bit dusty in there, and some of the decorations looked rather aged, but that was to be expected from a party being called on such short notice.   
“You’re- you’re going to be okay,” Eduard stammered, fidgeting with his glasses. “I kn- know he couldn’t have l-l-left.”   
A few minutes later, after a lot of wondering whether Ivan had changed his mind and decided to call the party off, the doors opened, and in walked Feliks and Ivan. Ivan looked amazing. His hair had been cut shorter, and Feliks had even put bows on his horns. His claws had been filed down a bit and painted with violet nail polish that matched his suit- the same kind of design as Alfred’s, except with a white waistcoat and a much more elaborate jacket, complete with lace and fabric ruffles on the cuffs. Feliks had tried to put some shoes on him too but his claws kept ripping the front of them up, so he was forced to let Ivan go barefoot.   
Ivan had never looked this good before. Alfred had always thought that he just didn’t care, but this was proof that he really did. “Ivan, you look…well…um…lovely?” Alfred felt a little awkward trying to say that to him but there really wasn’t another word for how he looked.   
Ivan’s eyes lit up a little. This was the first time anyone had ever complimented him on his appearance! And this was what it was like to be told you look lovely? Ivan definitely liked it. If he had any money of his own he would give Feliks a raise. He had gone above and beyond! “As…as do you,” Ivan said, excited and shocked at the same time.   
They approached each other and stood in the middle of the ballroom.   
“Nobody else is here…sorry…” Ivan apologized.   
“No need to apologize,” Alfred said. “We’ve got the whole place to ourselves now. What should we do?”   
Ivan blushed a little. He hadn’t even thought of what they would do at the party yet. He had spent so long getting ready that- “What- what are you doing??”   
Ivan froze. He then realized he had one arm around Alfred’s waist, the other holding his hand out to the side, and had been leaning downwards with him.   
“Uh….” Ivan said, trying to think of an explanation.   
Alfred grinned. “If there’s nothing else to do we’ll dance, if that’s what you choose!” He put his other arm around his waist, holding him close, and they began to dance around the room together. There wasn’t any music playing, but neither of them seemed to even notice. The only thing in that mattered was this dance, this completely perfect moment together.   
“Why does this feel so good?” Ivan murmured.   
“Maybe it’s because you’ve wanted to dance with someone but you haven’t gotten to before?” Alfred guessed.   
“But-” Ivan hesitated for a moment, reflecting on his immediate, impulsive reply to that statement. Saying or even thinking that sure didn’t seem like him. Alfred was making him do and feel all kinds of weird things that he’d never done before. “But what?” Alfred asked.   
“I wouldn’t want to dance with anybody else,” he whispered in the softest voice. “What?” Alfred asked. “I didn’t hear you.” “I don’t know if I wanted you to hear that,” Ivan said. The more he thought about it, the more absurd it was. Here he was, this big, hideous monster, dancing with Alfred and holding him close to him, even though there wasn’t any music playing.   
Alfred didn’t seem to care that Ivan wouldn’t repeat himself.   
“Tell you the truth, I kinda like this too,” Alfred said. “Let’s not stop.”


	5. Part 5

Did Alfred accidentally get drunk? Was that the reason for the weird euphoria he felt when dancing with Ivan? Was that why he just didn’t want to let go of Ivan at all? Or was it just that he was glad he never killed him?  
The same thoughts ran through Ivan’s mind about Alfred. He couldn’t explain why he wanted nothing more than to hold him and protect him for forever. He did think he could explain how he got to a point of realizing these feelings existed, rather than getting mad about them- which was what he would have did before Alfred, except that these particular feelings were only for Alfred. He wanted Alfred to teach him how to act like a human, and he did. He still had a frightening appearance but at least he didn’t act quite as roughly as he used to. At this rate, he could teach him how to attract someone and break the spell!  
The idea of someone else being there, dancing with him and kissing him, someone other than Alfred, saddened him deeply.   
He tensed up a little bit when the connection was made. He didn’t want just anyone to fall in love with him, he wanted Alfred to fall in love with him. Alfred had already succeded in getting Ivan to fall for him, even if that wasn’t his original plan, even if he didn’t know. A quiet, nagging voice of negativity still threatened him, trying to convince him that nobody could ever love a hideous beast like him, but it did so to no avail. Ivan had already made up his mind that somehow he would have Alfred in love with him as well.  
—-*****—-  
Somehow during their recruiting mission to form a search party to rescue Alfred, Gilbert took over the entire operation, and the main goal morphed from “save Alfred” into “kill the monster”. That was why Matthew was now hanging around the back of the now substantial crowd, not saying anything. Trying to remind everyone what they were really supposed to be doing had no effect, and the lack of concern for Alfred had him worrying out of his mind. Gilbert himself had even suggested burning the mansion to the ground and leaving. Everyone was so caught up in their hunger for revenge that they had all thought it was a good idea until Matthew reminded them that doing that would kill the person they were trying to save. They did, thankfully, scrap that idea, but most of the other villagers continued to just throw out more ideas about how to bring that monster to justice, rather than ideas about rescuing Alfred. Once Gilbert had woken up the entire town and gotten them out in the cobblestone streets, pitchforks and torches in hand, Gilbert decided it was time to go up there.  
“We’re going to go up there and make that monster regret the day he was ever even born! He’s a menace to all of us!!” he screamed. The rest of the crowd cheered in response.  
“Someone needs to teach him that you can’t just take us as prisoners! Let’s go up there and make him pay for every last mistake he made, with his sorry, pathetic life!!” Gilbert addressed the crowd.  
Yelling and screaming, the crowd charged forward. Matthew lagged behind. This wasn’t his search party anymore. It was Gilbert’s revenge party, tearing through the forest, fueled by cries of, “Kill the monster!” “Off with his head!” and “Revenge is ours!!”  
—-*****—–  
The servants, sick of standing around in the ballroom and watching Alfred dance with Ivan, bowed out of the “party” and dispersed through the house. Eduard had been presently attempting to fix a chandelier in the guest room- Alfred’s room, really- and admiring the glow of the sunset on the horizon. Except…the sun had already gone down a few hours ago. And there was no way a night passed already and it was morning now! And since when did sunsets make noise?? Eduard dropped the chandelier, running downstairs to alert everyone to the mob’s presence.  
“There’s…there’s an angry mob coming!!” he breathlessly cried out. “Run!”  
By the time all four servants were out in the hall, they could hear the mob faintly crying out, “Kill the monster!” from in the foyer.   
“We have to warn Ivan and Alfred!” Toris urgently cried, running off to the ballroom as the other servants once again scattered in panic.   
Toris burst into the ballroom doors, out of breath. “Mob!” he cried out, trying to catch his breath. “There’s a mob!”   
Alfred and Ivan stopped dancing.   
“Bob? Who’s B-” Alfred started, but he was interrupted by large paw-hands shoving him out of the ballroom.   
“Go hide, now,” Ivan said hurriedly. “You too, Toris. It’s me they want. So it’s me they’re going to get.”  
As Toris obediently ran upstairs to hide, Alfred zoomed back, grabbing Ivan’s arm.  
“Are you crazy!?” he cried out. “They’re going to kill you! You’re the one who should hide!”   
“I know they’re going to kill me!” Ivan yelled. Alfred could see the fear in Ivan’s eyes, plain as day.  
“But I don’t want to lose you!” Alfred cried, tugging on his arm again.   
“And I don’t want to lose you! If I hide both of us will die!” Ivan yelled back, withdrawing his arm.   
They could both clearly hear the mob outside now, with their cries of “Kill the monster!” and “Revenge!”   
“Goodbye, Alfred…” Ivan murmured, gently caressing Alfred’s shoulder before pushing him towards the stairs.  
“Then there’s only one thing I can do,” Alfred said, and ran up the stairs and down the hall. He opened the door to the servants quarters, where Raivis was hiding under one of the beds.   
“Raivis, come out from under there!” Alfred ordered. “I know how we can save Ivan, and ourselves!”   
Raivis didn’t move. “There’s- there’s nothing we can do!” he squeaked. “They won’t hurt us if we let them have him.”   
Alfred was shocked. “How could you say that??” he asked. “He’s not bad! And he does so much for you! In fact, he’s down there, throwing himself down in front of death for all of us! Don’t you realize that he’s nice now? He just needed someone there, who isn’t going to hide from him like you guys have always done! If it wasn’t for Ivan I guarantee you’d just be back in the village, making clocks or shoeing horses or building barns! Actually, you’d probably be out there, screaming with the others.”   
Raivis crawled out from under the bed a little. “I never- I never said he was bad,” he replied. “Ivan has really changed a lot since you’ve shown up. But what are we going to do? There’s 6 of us, against at least 50 of them!”   
Alfred picked up a fireplace poker, smirking. “What we have to. What he needs us to do,” he said. “Now go get the others. I have a plan.”


	6. Part 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I accidentally combined two chapters before...sorry...

Gilbert looked up at the imposing iron gates in front of him, and gave them a mighty shove. They had been locked, and didn’t budge.  
“Come on, someone help me break the lock!” he yelled. The other villagers were instantly at the gates, kicking and hitting the bars with all kinds of objects, until someone finally decided to beat the hinges with a hammer. The rusted hinges gave way quickly, and the mob was allowed access inside. Screaming and shouting, Gilbert and the others at the front of the group literally ripped the door open with pitchforks. Ivan was inside on the floor. He looked up at the group and slowly raised his paws.  
“That’s it??” Gilbert scoffed, shouldering his bow. “I would have thought he would have put up more of a-”  
A sword came flying out of the darkness and stuck in a painting on the wall, narrowly missing Gilbert’s head.  
“I was expecting more of-” Gilbert tried to say again, until a mason named Antonio jumped out of the crowd and pulled Gilbert out of the way. “Look out!” he cried.  
A beer keg came out of nowhere and smashed into the wall, spilling its contents everywhere.  
“Someone’s helping it!” Gilbert spat. “We can’t kill the monster until we find out where those booby traps are coming from!”  
“Now!” a voice called out.  
Ivan got up and ran behind the stairs.  
“Oh, now it’s running??” someone in the crowd asked.  
“Get him!” Gilbert ordered, loading an arrow into his bow and running forwards with 5 other villagers.  
“Like, not before we, like, totally get you first!” Feliks said, running up behind them on the stairs. He had been holding a rather large washtub, and he knocked all of them down with it. He ran up the stairs when they had fallen past him, running with Ivan to another area of the house.  
Back in the dark hallway, Raivis and Toris threw more objects at the remaining villagers. Having used the only two swords already, they moved on to throwing knives, ladles, pots, plates, and horseshoes at them. It worked a lot better than they thought- once they started throwing knives, most of the villagers were out of there.  
Unfortunately, Gilbert and his small band of remaining villagers were still there. They struggled to get up, but slipped on the spilled beer and fell on the plate shards and knives. The remaining 5 ran out of the house as quickly as possible, crying out that the mission had been a miserable failure.  
“Cowards!” Gilbert spat. “I don’t need any of you! I can finish him off by myself!!”  
He finally got up off of the floor, using a candle holder for leverage. Gilbert grabbed an arrow off of the floor and his bow, and ran back up the stairs. Gilbert, bow in hand, kicked open the first door to his left. It was just an empty storage closet. There was no way he was letting that monster escape!  
—–*****—–  
“Do you think… Do you think he is going to find us here?” Ivan asked, holding onto the railing.  
“I pulled a bookshelf in front of the door out here,” Alfred said. “I hope he doesn’t move it.”  
The two were hiding out on the balcony, Ivan sitting behind a large potted plant, and Alfred standing in front of the plant, armed with a fireplace poker in case Gilbert came outside.  
“Thanks, Alfred,” Ivan finally said after a few minutes.  
“For what?” Alfred asked in response.  
“For-” The unmistakable sound of wood scraping across a wooden floor froze both of them.  
“Is he psychic or something?!” Alfred wheezed.  
“It’s the end of the line now!” Gilbert yelled, throwing the door open and leaping onto the balcony.  
“Alfred!” he called out upon noticing that he was there. “You’re okay! The rest of the area’s safe,so go outside while I deal with this beast!”  
“I don’t think so!” he protested.  
“Alfred, you’re probably in too weak of a state to help me,” Gilbert said.  
“I’m helping someone, but it’s not you,” he said, hitting Gilbert in the leg with the poker.  
“You…what?!” Gilbert gasped. “You’re helping that thing?! That can’t be right! You’re a human! He’s a savage beast who needs to be brought to justice!!”  
“Ivan doesn’t deserve to die just because he’s different! Go away!” Alfred screamed.  
“That’s what you think!” Gilbert shot back. The potted plant fell over, knocking Alfred into the railing as Ivan lunged at Gilbert with a loud roar.  
Alfred’s knee hit the railing painfully. Wincing, he tried to roll over and see what was going on. He could tell that Ivan had both paws on Gilbert’s neck, but Gilbert was beating him with his bow and knocking him into the walls by suddenly running backwards into corners.  
Alfred tried to stand up, but wobbled on his hurt knee. He wasn’t just going to sit there and take it, though. He stood up, leaning on the railing, and staggered over to where the other men were fighting. Wobbling around on his feet, he repeatedly whacked Gilbert in the back with the poker, desperately trying to get him to give up.  
“I can’t… I can’t take no for an answer!” Gilbert finally screamed, and fired his bow.  
The sound that escaped Alfred’s mouth was hardly human, and the one that escaped Ivan’s definitely wasn’t human. The arrow went directly into his stomach, causing him to roar in pain and claw at Gilbert. Gilbert screamed, his face and chest now bloody, and staggered back- only to lean against the wrong part of the railing and fall over it, straight down to his death when he happened to land on a rock.  
Alfred cared a lot less about what was happening to Gilbert behind him than he did about what was happening to Ivan in front of him.  
“Ivan!” he screamed, running across the balcony and leaning down by him. “Wow, that’s a lot of blood. Ivan, are you okay?? Please, please tell me you’re okay!”  
Ivan let out a growling moan. “It… I just…” His eyelids slowly started to close.  
“You can’t die, you just can’t!” Alfred screamed, tears forming in his eyes. “Ivan, please stay with me!! Please!”  
“Alfred…thanks…for- for trying to save me,” he sputtered, reaching up and gently caressing Alfred’s cheek.  
Alfred grabbed his paw-hand in both of his hands. “I did save you, because I’m not going to let you die!” Alfred cried out. “Don’t you dare close your eyes!!!”  
“What- what’s happening?” Toris cried, rushing out onto the balcony with Feliks. “Is… Is he, like, going to die?” Feliks asked.  
“No!” Alfred screamed. “No, he can’t die! Don’t close your eyes, Ivan!! Keep them open!  
Quick, do I pull the arrow out or leave it- no, no, Ivan, I just said don’t close your eyes! Open them back up! Come on, please!!”  
The lack of motion sent chills down Alfred’s, Toris’s and Feliks’s spines simultaneously. Alfred couldn’t do anything except scream to the heavens for taking Ivan away from him.  
Toris and Feliks both bowed their heads, and upon Raivis and Eduard’s arrival, they knew exactly what had happened, and joined them.  
“No, no… It can’t be…” Alfred whispered, gently leaning his forehead against Ivan’s. He sat like that for just a moment before sitting up a little. “I… I love you…” Alfred whispered, and gave him a short kiss on the lips.  
Alfred wasn’t sure exactly when he noticed, but Ivan’s lips seemed to be sparkling. He knew for sure they weren’t like that before, so this struck him as peculiar. But what was even more peculiar was when he noticed that the sparkly stuff was spreading. “You might want to look at this,” he said to the servants.  
They looked up just in time to see Ivan’s whole body shimmering with a weird sort of blue glow to it.  
“It’s…” Feliks started to say. “What-”  
Ivan’s body rose up in the air a bit, sparkling even more and giving off brighter light. The arrow sticking out of his stomach disintegrated, and a twist of shimmering, ethereal pink light materialized at his feet and snaked up around his body. There was at once a blinding flash of light, and then he descended back down. When the magic dust cleared, nobody could believe what they were seeing. It was still Ivan, all right, but he didn’t look like a monster anymore. He no longer had horns, and the fur on his body and claws were absent. The primal quality he used to have about him was now absent.  
What shocked everyone even more was when Ivan sat up suddenly, coughing and fanning the glitter clouds away.  
“Feliks, what have you done??” he sputtered. “Ivan!!” Alfred cried out, throwing his arms around him.  
“Ivan, you’re alive, you’re alive!!”  
“Alfred? What’s… What’s going on?” Ivan asked.  
“Oh, wow,” Alfred said, letting go of him. “Well, where do I start? I guess… Look at your hands.” Ivan did, and gasped. His hands didn’t have claws or fur anymore. They were normally sized, and looked a lot smoother than before.  
“Ivan, you’re a human!” Toris squealed in delight.  
“I can’t believe it!” Eduard said.  
“Alfred, like, totally broke the curse!” Feliks pointed out.  
“I wish I had a mirror so I could show you what you look like now,” Alfred sighed. “You’re… You’re beautiful.”  
“Impossible,” Ivan said. “I’m not beautiful. Not at all.”  
“But you are! And you always have been. You’ve been beautiful on the inside all along, but now you’re beautiful both inside and outside,” Alfred said, putting his arms around Ivan’s torso and pulling him in closer to him.  
Ivan caught a reflection of himself in Alfred’s glasses- and could have passed out from what he saw. His hair was short and not frazzled, his ears weren’t pointed anymore, and there was now a human, majestic light in his violet eyes that wasn’t there before. Gone were his pointed teeth and horns. Now, he had an adorable, round face. He really was beautiful.  
“Wow,” was all that Ivan could say. “Alfred… I can’t thank you enough. For- for everything.”  
“You don’t need to,” Alfred whispered. “But there is one thing you can do for me.”  
“What is it?” he asked.  
Alfred leaned in and kissed Ivan again. Totally taken aback, but nevertheless in love, he kissed him back, tenderly and full of the sweetest kind of love. Ivan pulled away from him a few seconds later for air, laughing nervously as he caught his breath.  
“Wow, so this was what I’ve been missing my whole life,” he said. "I...I liked it."  
Alfred giggled a little. "I did too," he said, getting up and helping Ivan up.  
"Do you- do you want to stay here with me? To live here with me?" Ivan asked shyly.  
Alfred only responded by throwing his arms around Ivan. "Of course," he cried out in joy. "Of course I will!"


End file.
